How do our users conduct their research? What tools do they currently use and what are they lacking? What tools do librarians and teachers find their users want?

Interviews were conducted with a variety of groups to answer these questions for three metasearch infrastructure projects: Documenting the American West, the Core Collection, and the National Science Digital Library.

Those queried in structured interviews or focus groups included: UC undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and librarians; California public school librarians and teachers; private, community, and state college librarians; and public librarians and teachers in Colorado. For more information on the metasearch needs assessment project, see the March 11, 2004 CDLINFO: [http://www.cdlib.org/inside/news/cdlinfo/cdlinfo031104.html#7]

The summary reports are available on the metasearch infrastructure project page under “Needs Assessment Activities” at: [http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/metasearch/]

These reports may be of special interest to public services librarians and staff, and those involved in the creation of tools to support user needs in the digital library world.